Reimagining Arts Graduate Education

Come join the conversation

Hello, and welcome to the Reimagining Arts Graduate Education Substack!

We are three political science professors who want to start a conversation about graduate education in Arts disciplines in Canada. We’re so keen on the idea that we wrote a book about it! (For a quick read outlining our argument, take a look at our recent piece in The Conversation).

Why a substack? Our aim is to start conversations about how the potential of Arts graduate education in Canada can be realized. So we’ve created this substack as one of the places where the conversation can happen. We’ll use it as a place to talk about what we’ve heard from colleagues who have put some of our ideas into action. 

But even more importantly, we’re creating it as a place for you to tell us what you’re doing to reimagine Arts graduate education at your own institution. So consider yourself invited to write a guest column! Just drop us a line at Reimagining.Grad.Education@gmail.com . 

What should you expect from this newsletter? We will try to post every couple of weeks, rotating between our writing and guest contributions we receive. We’re hoping there will be a lively conversation in the comments section, creating a community of faculty members, administrators and graduate students interested in reimagining Arts graduate education. 

While our book is focused on Canada, if you are involved in Arts graduate education anywhere, we’re eager to have you join the conversation. 

We won’t be presenting actual book content except for quotes as we don’t want to make our publisher mad at us! 

So subscribe and join our little community here. And tell a friend. Consider introducing yourself in the comments. 

Some introductions

Loleen Berdahl is a professor of political studies at the University of Saskatchewan and the executive director of the Johnson Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy at the University of Saskatchewan and the University of Regina. Her personal substack is Academia Made Easier, where she shares small ideas to make academic work more manageable. She also writes University Affairs’ The Skills Agenda column.

Jonathan Malloy is a professor of political science at Carleton University where he holds the Bell Research Chair in Canadian Parliamentary Democracy.  He has been chair of his department and associate dean for research and graduate studies, and is the incoming president of the Canadian Political Science Association. These and other leadership and administrative roles have given him a passion for the potential of reimagined arts graduate education.  For the Public Good is his seventh book.

Lisa Young is a professor of political science at the University of Calgary. Her other substack is What Now?!?: An Alberta Politics Newsletter, where she writes about the zany twists and turns of politics in her province. She’s been involved in graduate education for the past twenty years, as director of the graduate program in political science at University of Calgary, and then as Associate Dean and then Dean of Graduate Studies. That experience has made her a proponent of curriculum redesign, professional development for graduate students and opening up space for innovative dissertation formats. 

At our book launch at University of Alberta: Jonathan, Lisa and Loleen

Are you attending Congress?

On Saturday June 15, Jonathan and Lisa will be offering a workshop at the Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences, as part of Career Corner. We’ll take you through our EDITS (efficient; deliberate; inclusive; talent developing; and student-centred) framework for reinventing Arts graduate programs. We’ll ask you to reflect on how your program currently meets the five EDITS criteria, how it could be improved, and how you might overcome potential barriers to doing so. You’ll leave the session with a specific roadmap for how you can advance change in your graduate program.

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